Have any CDs labeled “For Promotional Use Only” or “Not For Resale”? Before you unload them on a friend, sell ’em online, or toss ’em in the trash, consider this: Universal Music Group (UMG) doesn’t believe you have the right to do any of the above.

Record companies like UMG regularly send thousands of such discs (whole albums and single tracks) to DJs, radio stations, and other music tastemakers free of charge, benefiting from the resulting exposure (rotation, reviews, etc). Later, many of these discs are offered for sale in used CD stores, at garage sales, and online. Now UMG is suing a California man, Troy Augusto, for auctioning off such “promo CDs” on eBay.

According to the lawsuit UMG filed last week, because there has been no outright purchase of the material from the record company, it eternally owns these discs and any additional distributions (like Augusto’s auctions), constitutes copyright infringement.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) disagrees, and has taken up Augusto’s case. It is the EFF view that under the first-sale doctrine, anyone in possession of promo CDs can do as they wish to with the discs, since the copyright owner has given them away: “Once a copyright owner has parted with ownership of a CD, book, or DVD, whether by sale, gift, or other disposition, they may not control further dispositions of that particular copy (including throwing it away). It’s thanks to the first sale doctrine that libraries can lend books, video rental stores can rent DVDs, and you can give a CD to a friend for their birthday. It’s also the reason you can throw away any CD that you own.”

Finding a striking resemblance to UMG’s stance in the world of Harry Potter, where goblins believe that the “rightful and true master of any object is the maker, not the purchaser,” EFF includes that Deathly Hollows excerpt in its introduction to the summary judgment brief filed on behalf of Augusto.

I think the suit is a stupidly bold move on UMG’s part, and believe EFF has a strong defense. You can track the case here, but regardless of the outcome, please don’t throw unwanted CDs in the trash.